Speaker 1: Be around then l podcast wishes it were the Split
Speaker 1: Ends podcast feels like a reach. Welcome to another edition
Speaker 1: of the Around the NFL Podcast. I'm Dan Hansas. I
Speaker 1: come to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes,
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and yes, you just heard her voice,
Speaker 1: sheepishly trying to duck out of the money tag. It's
Speaker 1: the great Colleen Wolf, Connie Fox the Tiny Box. She's back. YO.
Speaker 1: Great to see you guys, tug Boat, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: Did you get Do we have the drop? Ricky? Maybe
Speaker 1: we'll add the post that you put it on a
Speaker 1: spot there, considering she is your co host on the
Speaker 1: Split Ends podcast, to put her on the spot and
Speaker 1: make her producing seems subpar interesting play there. Like you,
Speaker 1: I'm just pushing her to get better, to be better,
Speaker 1: we should all push ourselves to be beat. That's a
Speaker 1: good friends and good quality and a friend. And that's
Speaker 1: the kind of friend that you seem to appear to be.
Speaker 1: Since we haven't had you Connie on the show in
Speaker 1: a few weeks, I want to give you the opportunity
Speaker 1: to share your feelings about the legendary quarterback Tom Brady
Speaker 1: on the eve of his possible retirement. Oh love you bro?
Speaker 1: Wait what was that? Tom? Love you bro? Do you
Speaker 1: love Tom Brady? Share it? I love the way that
Speaker 1: he plays, But you know, it wouldn't be the worst
Speaker 1: thing in the world if he decided to hang it
Speaker 1: up and spend some time with his family and his
Speaker 1: production company. Whatever he is going on. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know he's Honestly, if I'm being completely serious, I
Speaker 1: think that we're going to look back at this era
Speaker 1: of football and Tom Brady and be like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I can't believe we covered him in at the height
Speaker 1: of his of his powers, and he's been so good
Speaker 1: in such a staple and taking him for granted is
Speaker 1: a really easy thing to do. But also it's Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: and it's also very easy to hate on him because
Speaker 1: he's so good and because no one else has ever
Speaker 1: reached what he's been able to do. So I don't know, Well,
Speaker 1: you know who doesn't take him for granted? A surprisingly
Speaker 1: serious answer, right, A guy by the name of Bill Ker.
Speaker 1: Bilker appreciates every moment, and I think you should be
Speaker 1: a little more concerned with Bill Cower's emotions. If Tom
Speaker 1: Brady does retire. That's who I'm worried about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's more like middle aged white men in football media
Speaker 1: or retired coaches that seem to truly fall for Tom
Speaker 1: in a perhaps romantic way. And and maybe Tom, if
Speaker 1: he does retire, maybe he goes uh and take some
Speaker 1: time out and moves from Tampa to Miami, maybe of
Speaker 1: sand where you were going with us? You want to
Speaker 1: see me up one more time? Yeah? Um, what do
Speaker 1: you think about Tom Brady? Do you want to share
Speaker 1: any feelings about the man the way others have? I
Speaker 1: love you, Tom, That's that's what you're looking for. Right.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to Tom Brady and what's going on
Speaker 1: with Brady. It's the start of a saga that I
Speaker 1: still believe in my heart is going to stretch over. Uh,
Speaker 1: not days or weeks, but years. This is step one
Speaker 1: long time player begins to moral retirement. It becomes a
Speaker 1: story every winter for about two to three years, then
Speaker 1: becomes a reality. Could be wrong though? Could be? Could
Speaker 1: this could be it for Tom Brady? We shall see.
Speaker 1: But Uh, today's show is a good one because we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to Um. Jordan Rodrigue of the Athletic who
Speaker 1: covers the Rams and it's going to give us a
Speaker 1: bit of a deep dive on where the Rams are at,
Speaker 1: both in terms of their journey and where they're at mentally.
Speaker 1: It's a very interesting team when you start kind of
Speaker 1: peeling back the layers of the players that are at
Speaker 1: the center of this. The coaching staff. Obviously, the coaching
Speaker 1: staff has some major demons to slay here with Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan and his six game winning streak. Greg, I feel
Speaker 1: like if if Kyle Shanahan defeats Sean McVeigh for a
Speaker 1: seventh consecutive time for the NFC Championship, that is the
Speaker 1: type of bragging rights that no boy genius comes back from.
Speaker 1: I don't think McVeigh survives it. Um emotionally, there's a
Speaker 1: lot on the line there. Well, their friendships certainly doesn't
Speaker 1: if if they are even still friends. I feel like, um,
Speaker 1: nothing rang as false as Kyle Shanahan trying to say
Speaker 1: that him and Matt Lafleur are still friends too after
Speaker 1: he tried to go get Aaron Rodgers last offseason. There's
Speaker 1: there's no greater revenge though, than Kyle Shanahan just destroying
Speaker 1: assistant after assistant of his old states Like I made you,
Speaker 1: and I'm still better than you. Yeah, for sure. UM,
Speaker 1: so we'll we'll get into the rams with Jordan's We're
Speaker 1: gonna hit a bunch of news. But before we get
Speaker 1: into any of the other Brady stuff for anything else
Speaker 1: going on the league, we got to talk about the
Speaker 1: huge story that broke on Tuesday. Sean Payton and the
Speaker 1: Saints are no more. Let's get into the news. Mr
Speaker 1: Goodall is on the phone the commissioner. He didn't stunning news.
Speaker 1: Perhaps not stunning because there were some breadcrumbs along the
Speaker 1: way over the last several days, but Sean Payton's storied
Speaker 1: run of the Saints is over. UM rap Sheet originally
Speaker 1: reported it on Tuesday that Peyton was stepping down his
Speaker 1: head coach of the Saints. Fifty eight years old, leaves
Speaker 1: the team uh sixty plus games, over five hundred nine
Speaker 1: postseason wins, a Coach of the Year award, a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl title. UM, and now he's stepping away. He had
Speaker 1: a pre conference on Tuesday explaining where he's at headspace wise.
Speaker 1: As everyone speculates what happens next. I still have a
Speaker 1: vision for for doing things in football, and and and
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you that might be coaching again
Speaker 1: at some point. I don't think it's this year. I
Speaker 1: think maybe in the future. But that's not where my
Speaker 1: heart is right now. It's not at all. Peyton also
Speaker 1: addressed some of the speculation, rampant speculation that he might
Speaker 1: get into the media. Let's hear that as well. I
Speaker 1: don't know what's next, not spoken to anyone from a
Speaker 1: media outlet, relative to doing television or radio. Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: that opportunity arises. I think i'd like to do that.
Speaker 1: I think it'd be pretty good at it, all right,
Speaker 1: So Connie, let's let's start the conversation this way. I
Speaker 1: as I saw this unfold this morning, I couldn't stop
Speaker 1: thinking what a brilliant personnel, personal maneuver this is for
Speaker 1: Sean Payton, because I do buy the idea that after
Speaker 1: a very tough season, and he's been doing the job forever,
Speaker 1: maybe this was his time. He's he's seen other his
Speaker 1: other the coaches he's looked up to a parcels for
Speaker 1: existence uh for instance, who stepped back for a year
Speaker 1: or two and then got back in. He gets it. Now,
Speaker 1: get out, take whatever job he wants in the football sphere,
Speaker 1: or do nothing and then when he does decide to
Speaker 1: get back in, he will become the hottest head coach
Speaker 1: property uh in the NFL in some time. Uh. It
Speaker 1: feels like it sets up well, but we don't even
Speaker 1: know if he's coming back. Your thoughts on all this news,
Speaker 1: What what a life? What an option to have in
Speaker 1: life to be Sean Payton in this very position he
Speaker 1: was in Cabo, went radio silent on a bunch of
Speaker 1: people and then decided, you know what, I'm going to
Speaker 1: step away from this organization that I've been linked to
Speaker 1: and loved by the fans for so long because he
Speaker 1: can basically take an NFL sabbatical like Bruce Arians has
Speaker 1: done it too in the past, and we've seen coaches
Speaker 1: do this, and I wonder if it's just because, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe he's reached that burnout phase. We we saw what
Speaker 1: happened this year, and when he didn't have a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame quarterback, went through four different quarterbacks. I think
Speaker 1: that being a head coach in the NFL is stressful
Speaker 1: in and of itself, just in a regular year, and
Speaker 1: then you add in all of the layers with covid Um,
Speaker 1: and then they had the hurricane that misplaced them at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the year too, So there were just
Speaker 1: so many things that added probably to the stress and
Speaker 1: anxiety of the job, and so for him to be
Speaker 1: able to have this as an option is is great
Speaker 1: for him. And I thought the press conference in general,
Speaker 1: he was so thoughtful, He was so sincere and so genuine,
Speaker 1: and it was kind of surreal to watch him say
Speaker 1: goodbye and watch him step aside. And I did love
Speaker 1: the fact that there were so many stories that he
Speaker 1: told and and thanked so many people, and you could
Speaker 1: tell that he really did think about this ahead of time.
Speaker 1: He even said that he googled it one point how
Speaker 1: to not cry during a speech, and that the Google
Speaker 1: machine told him to drink water. And I was wondering, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was wondering at one point furiously slamming bottles
Speaker 1: of water back during this press conference. He would stop
Speaker 1: at just all of a sudden start shugging water, and
Speaker 1: so that made a whole lot of sense. But I
Speaker 1: just thought that, you know, his empathy towards the media
Speaker 1: and covering the NFL during this time with all of
Speaker 1: the protocols, and he was just he came off as
Speaker 1: the person that I really wanted him to be in
Speaker 1: this situation. Yeah, I want to get to his future next,
Speaker 1: but quickly, like it is a day for him to reflect.
Speaker 1: The press conference, Uh is still going on as as
Speaker 1: we talk. It actually might still be going on by
Speaker 1: the time you hear this. It could just continue. But
Speaker 1: he's got a lot to talk about, Like this sixteen
Speaker 1: year run ranks with you know, the great coaching runs.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's not Bartie or Belichick, but I think
Speaker 1: he's a Hall of Fame coach. And I think the
Speaker 1: place where he took over this franchise to where they
Speaker 1: went immediately, that OH six team is you know, one
Speaker 1: of the most magical non Super Bowl teams to me
Speaker 1: ever read. Reggie Bush, who he mentioned a couple of times,
Speaker 1: really changed that franchise. It's hard to like remember what
Speaker 1: a big deal getting Reggie Bush was just in terms
Speaker 1: of making putting them on the front page of the newspaper,
Speaker 1: selling tickets, all this stuff. Uh. And it's been in
Speaker 1: like an incredible journey. But he said going into this year,
Speaker 1: he was thinking about it going into training camp that
Speaker 1: this might be his last year. And I think he
Speaker 1: did a great job. He showed his value this year.
Speaker 1: The their offense. You know, quietly, if you kind of
Speaker 1: look at the analytics mind, it was like pretty decent
Speaker 1: considering the disastrous quarterback an injury situation that he had.
Speaker 1: He joked how he tried to get Drew Brees to
Speaker 1: play again this year, and after watching the Dolphins game,
Speaker 1: they talked again and they were they were happy that
Speaker 1: Drew didn't come back because that would have not been
Speaker 1: fun for Drew Brees to be behind. So I think
Speaker 1: you said it well, Dan, like he's fifty eight years old,
Speaker 1: which you know is I guess is getting up there
Speaker 1: in life terms, but in NFL coaching terms, it's still
Speaker 1: pretty young. I mean, right, he's ten years younger and
Speaker 1: he's gonna be in a position in one year. And
Speaker 1: once they asked, uh, once he allowed questions and they
Speaker 1: got a little more specific about it. You know, he
Speaker 1: made it pretty clear this year's off for coaching, he
Speaker 1: wants to do media, and then it sounds like he'll
Speaker 1: be throwing his hat back into the coaching ring. And
Speaker 1: you would think at that time the Saints actually might
Speaker 1: try to get him to coach for them again because
Speaker 1: they have his contract, and that's where it gets interesting.
Speaker 1: They can get compensation for him, but he mentioned how
Speaker 1: you know Gayle Benson and and I'd be worried as
Speaker 1: a Saints fan considering the history of this ownership when
Speaker 1: Sean Payton hasn't been there about what's gonna happen next?
Speaker 1: And Gayle Benson said, how about you just come back
Speaker 1: in camp. You can like have the whole off season
Speaker 1: off and like come back in camp and coaches. So
Speaker 1: it's like whenever he wants to come back, if it's
Speaker 1: a year or two years, the thing they'll do is
Speaker 1: just probably trying to get less. If anything, they might
Speaker 1: just try to keep the seat warm and then replace them.
Speaker 1: They've already had one bad decision and that hasn't even
Speaker 1: happened yet, saying telling the head coach you could take
Speaker 1: the summer off. What do you got to say on this? Mark?
Speaker 1: I what I found the most delicious um about this
Speaker 1: as it was sort of unfolding on Twitter. Uh, And
Speaker 1: I agree that I don't think it was shocking because
Speaker 1: there were like more and more of becoming more trenchant
Speaker 1: concerns and reports about the fact that this isn't just
Speaker 1: him with his phone off on vacation. This is him
Speaker 1: genuinely considering his future. But what I loved was the
Speaker 1: fact that you know, reminded me when I was in
Speaker 1: UM in sixth grade, in middle school, there was this
Speaker 1: power couple, Um, if you can be powerful at that age,
Speaker 1: Terry in sixth grades, Terry Hall and Genderilla, they were
Speaker 1: both essentially the like the hottest guy in the hottest
Speaker 1: girl dating and they had a stunning breakup in about
Speaker 1: April or May, just as the spring was starting, and
Speaker 1: cut those all over the school, Like girls all over
Speaker 1: the school were dumping the lower level guys that they
Speaker 1: were with, and the same was happening in reverse because
Speaker 1: there was just a chance that maybe you'd have a
Speaker 1: chance to get with Terry Hall or Jen Varilla. And
Speaker 1: every single fan base was thinking, yeah, our coach is okay,
Speaker 1: but if we can get this guy f our coach,
Speaker 1: and like it's it's all centered around Mike McCarthy because
Speaker 1: there's been rumors forever, um that you know, the Cowboys
Speaker 1: obviously love Sean Payton. I'll never forget in sitting at
Speaker 1: the at the owners meetings at the Saints table waiting
Speaker 1: for Peyton, and he rolled up with a little leather
Speaker 1: briefcase saying this is my new contract and here my
Speaker 1: five year deal, and who knew it would lead to
Speaker 1: this at this point. I mean, I think it's an
Speaker 1: incredible move for coaches in general h to take a
Speaker 1: little bit of time in between job A and job B.
Speaker 1: He can explore. Like you said, Dan Bill Parcels went
Speaker 1: to NBC for a year, did not thrive at that
Speaker 1: at all. He just was not good for that. So
Speaker 1: who knows if Sean Payton would he talked about TV,
Speaker 1: get linked into that and love it. But I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: like every almost outside of Belichick, every coach in the
Speaker 1: league would be replaced in a second by ownership. For
Speaker 1: Sean Payton, it's going to be a story all year.
Speaker 1: It's going to shows how valuable he was. Every coach
Speaker 1: I think is strong personally. But I would say sev
Speaker 1: of the league would be willing to do a swap
Speaker 1: out at the very least. And you brought up McCarthy
Speaker 1: that to me, it all is still if you put
Speaker 1: the red string on the board, this is today was
Speaker 1: a bad day from Mike McCarthy, because what this is
Speaker 1: gonna be now is a situation where he's gonna when
Speaker 1: we do our hot butt exercise, come August, his butt
Speaker 1: is gonna be hotter than anyone because it's all set
Speaker 1: up for Hey, Mike, if you don't win the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: Jared Jones is going to find a way, uh to
Speaker 1: cut a check and get Peyton separated from the Saints
Speaker 1: and bring him in to replace you, to be the
Speaker 1: missing link of this team. That Now, sometimes these things
Speaker 1: that seem obvious don't actually come to fruition, but sometimes
Speaker 1: it's right in front of you, and I feel like
Speaker 1: this is one of those times where Peyton will be
Speaker 1: the next coach of the Dallas Cowboys. It just now
Speaker 1: comes down to ken Mike McCarthy, with the urgency at
Speaker 1: the highest, will that team to another level. That still
Speaker 1: seems to me where his next location is. I don't
Speaker 1: buy the Saints. I think that I think that's the
Speaker 1: end of an era. The way he was talking sounded
Speaker 1: like it was the end of the era, and maybe
Speaker 1: the Saints would be better to turn the page themselves.
Speaker 1: I get it. But they can hold the you know,
Speaker 1: they have him under contract. I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: if if you're the contracts mean nothing, they always get
Speaker 1: I get it. But if if you're gonna trade him
Speaker 1: and you're gonna trade him to the Dallas Cowboys. Your
Speaker 1: price is gonna be so high that either it's gonna
Speaker 1: work out great for you or the Cowboys aren't going
Speaker 1: to be able to do it. I mean, he he
Speaker 1: becomes like a player almost that you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: send to a different contrast or certainly not a regional
Speaker 1: rival relatively in the Cowboys, and it just it. He
Speaker 1: comes a very fascinating John Gruden like situation, except I
Speaker 1: think with a little more a year to year pressure
Speaker 1: on it than Gruden had. Where you always thought Gruden
Speaker 1: was going to come back, you didn't know when Peyton,
Speaker 1: if he's gonna do it, maybe he'll just love broadcasting.
Speaker 1: But if he's gonna do it, it's gonna be sooner,
Speaker 1: sooner than later. And the Saints absolutely should hold a
Speaker 1: hard bargain, like this is nice. They're like passing pastries
Speaker 1: back and forth, but at some point it's gonna be business.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that Seohn Payton brought up
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy by name in this press conference talking about
Speaker 1: when he found out that Mike McCarthy got the packer's job,
Speaker 1: and he threw his phone into the Pillow, and obviously
Speaker 1: it was the best thing that ever happened to him,
Speaker 1: So I appreciated that. I thought that was kind of
Speaker 1: a little of a bread crumb maybe, but I also
Speaker 1: loved his honesty when he was talking about his friendship
Speaker 1: with Mickey Loomis and then just threw out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: He was like, he walks slow. It bothers me. I
Speaker 1: want him to pick it up. And that was maybe
Speaker 1: my sad line of the entire press conference. That well
Speaker 1: struck me to Connie because it did feel like he
Speaker 1: was going very much off the top of his head
Speaker 1: and he was speaking comfortably, which is a good sign
Speaker 1: for a guy that's looking to get in the media.
Speaker 1: He won't be like his old quarterback Drew Bees. Greg.
Speaker 1: Let me just say this to go back to the
Speaker 1: McCarthy thing. I understand what the cost would be, and
Speaker 1: it would be deemed by many to be prohibitive. I
Speaker 1: understand that could be messy with the contract situation. Maybe
Speaker 1: the Saints don't want to keep him in the NFC,
Speaker 1: But you're telling me not if when the Cowboys go
Speaker 1: eight and nine next year under Mike McCarthy and Jarra,
Speaker 1: who's at that point gonna be nearing eighty years old.
Speaker 1: I believe is going to move mountains to get the
Speaker 1: head coach he wants, just like he did get Bill
Speaker 1: Parcels way back when that I just stand by that.
Speaker 1: I think that Gerald will make it happen. If Jerald
Speaker 1: wants it to happen, okay, But then yeah, then the
Speaker 1: Saints wind up with like three first round picks or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's kind of take and and I just think it
Speaker 1: it'll be a fascinating thing because it's so rare, and
Speaker 1: maybe other teams get involved. You know that the Saints
Speaker 1: would rather trade him to and yeah, if that's where
Speaker 1: Peyton wants to go and the Cowboys wanted to happen,
Speaker 1: that's all possible. But that the Saints are in a
Speaker 1: in a good point, like that's what they're paying for
Speaker 1: with that suitcase mark, like that that's what they were
Speaker 1: paying for. Is now they have they're gonna pay them
Speaker 1: all that. You know, they they have that leverage, and
Speaker 1: they gave him that guaranteed money. They gave him the
Speaker 1: rage and and even at the time, Peyton probably knew
Speaker 1: he's giving up some power if he wants to walk away,
Speaker 1: and that's part of it, and I think like the
Speaker 1: next team that gets Sean Payton's like they are getting
Speaker 1: such a good coach. I liked what he said about
Speaker 1: his maturation process of how to deal with the media
Speaker 1: and him as a person. If you look at the
Speaker 1: coaches that's been under him, He's chosen some great coaches,
Speaker 1: Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn who are now in Detroit.
Speaker 1: He really made a push for Dennis Allen. I think
Speaker 1: he knows how to handle the whole organization, and I
Speaker 1: think that's different like when he won early in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: He's admitted he's had he had some trouble almost dealing
Speaker 1: with like the rock star nature that he was that
Speaker 1: he had in New Orleans. He he admittedly had a
Speaker 1: drug problem. You had any gate, and there was probably
Speaker 1: no more paranoid coach in the entire NFL. There was
Speaker 1: a point around the bounty gate and when all that
Speaker 1: drug stuff was happening that he he was didn't seem
Speaker 1: like a healthy person. And now I think he's come
Speaker 1: out the other end and he's been a better coach.
Speaker 1: And they haven't won the Super Bowl here in the
Speaker 1: last stretch, but they've been incredibly well coached and consistent
Speaker 1: and like, you know, you're right that any team is
Speaker 1: gonna want him. Well, he's definitely mellowed out. I mean
Speaker 1: people that know him talked about that. I mean he's
Speaker 1: on his second marriage at this point. You know, he's
Speaker 1: his life's changed. I would say this to Dan's point
Speaker 1: three first round picks for Sean Payton. If I'm an
Speaker 1: NFL owner, I do it. I never look back. I
Speaker 1: never think about it. You're good for the next ten years,
Speaker 1: and you've got a brand, you've got a franchise, and
Speaker 1: you have a coach that can maximize your players, your scheme.
Speaker 1: Anyone in the league. Sure, But even while with lesser quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: look what he's done. The last thing is he's like
Speaker 1: Parcels though he's leaving at the right time, Like you
Speaker 1: want to go in and build it and be the hero.
Speaker 1: And they've got about seventy million dollars and cap problems.
Speaker 1: They don't have a quarterback there. I don't think Tarran
Speaker 1: Armstad's gonna be there. There's gonna be a lot of changes.
Speaker 1: And Mickey Loomis, who's been there the whole time, and
Speaker 1: and maybe Dennis Allen, who it really sounds like has
Speaker 1: the inside track for this job is gonna have an
Speaker 1: extremely difficult job in this next year. Well, in to
Speaker 1: Connie's point, I guess you know Mickey Loomis walking at
Speaker 1: a slower pace has finally annoyed him to such a
Speaker 1: degree that he's left Mickey Loomis general manager of the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Pelicans as well. In a double fix, Payton's
Speaker 1: just gonna go hang out in Cabo, Like he just
Speaker 1: got married in Cavo this offseason. He went and made
Speaker 1: a decision in Cabo. I don't know, great things happening,
Speaker 1: he said, But he said he just bought a new
Speaker 1: place in New Orleans. So I like that he's staying. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think we should go to Cabo. I feel like
Speaker 1: everybody who goes to Cabo something good happens. I got
Speaker 1: my anniversity there. You go. By the way, we also
Speaker 1: um one thing you didn't address Greg with his personal
Speaker 1: problems and like you know, tragedies. The Kevin James casting,
Speaker 1: like he overcame that MS. He's gonna get to do
Speaker 1: all the he's gonna be working for. I'm gonna predict NBC,
Speaker 1: but could be ESPN, who knows, uh. And he's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to do all the talk shows promoting home game.
Speaker 1: You know, people made fun of that Kevin James thing.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? Like he's a football coach and
Speaker 1: has some yeah, pretty high a list level actor playing
Speaker 1: him a Netflix movie. I mean that that should be
Speaker 1: good for the ego. Yeah, I think the casting could
Speaker 1: have been a little better on that. Do you recall
Speaker 1: we did actually we did a casting for Sean payton
Speaker 1: Um Last Office Dinner. My wife offers some options. She
Speaker 1: did work in the industry. Yeah, I mean we she
Speaker 1: and I combined because I'm a you know, I have
Speaker 1: some casting toile. So I'm going Peter stars Guard like,
Speaker 1: who is you know? He's never bad, He's never bad.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break, all right, let's uh, let's keep
Speaker 1: We got a bunch of news to hit before we
Speaker 1: get to Jordan's so we'll uh um, But we gotta
Speaker 1: give Tom Brady a little bit of time here because
Speaker 1: this is I've see a huge story. Tom Brady season
Speaker 1: ended Sunday seven loss for the Bucks to the Rams.
Speaker 1: They wiped out a point deficit only to lose in
Speaker 1: heartbreaking fashion. Brady did play very well uh in the
Speaker 1: during the closing uh in the closing half of that game,
Speaker 1: even though he was under constant arrest. So he went
Speaker 1: out if this would be the good way he goes out.
Speaker 1: He went out as a big time player still, but
Speaker 1: now we're hearing he's thinking about and he's involving his
Speaker 1: family um in making the decision. Here's what he said
Speaker 1: on his podcast with none other than the infamous Jim Gray.
Speaker 1: Football is extremely important in my life and it means
Speaker 1: a lot to me, and I care a lot about
Speaker 1: what we're trying to accomplish as a team, and I
Speaker 1: care a lot about my teammates. And the biggest difference
Speaker 1: style that I'm molder is I have kids now too,
Speaker 1: you know, and I care about them a lot as well.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, they've been my biggest supporters. My
Speaker 1: wife is my guess supporter. It pains her to see
Speaker 1: me get hit out there, and you know, she deserves
Speaker 1: what she needs from me as a husband. My kids
Speaker 1: deserve what they need from me as a dad. You know,
Speaker 1: I've already kind of shared my thoughts on where how
Speaker 1: I think this ends up, so I won't be labored,
Speaker 1: but I do I do want to say I knew
Speaker 1: that he has Brady a professional relationship with Jim Gray,
Speaker 1: the infamous Jim Gray. But it's apparently a podcast called
Speaker 1: the Let's Go Podcast, And how boring must that podcast
Speaker 1: be to never be in the news you never hear about, like,
Speaker 1: what's the first episode? You're so you're telling me. Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe it's been completely dark, but there is a
Speaker 1: scenario here where Tom Brady. Tom Brady has been doing
Speaker 1: a podcast who knows every week, maybe three times podcast.
Speaker 1: Larry Fitzgerald is on it too. Nothing new. It's uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like seven, it's probably started. Hey, Ricky, can you
Speaker 1: do some digging and let me know how often that
Speaker 1: Let's Go podcast into it? Alright? Anyway, Connie, you're you
Speaker 1: got the floor, all right. I didn't realize that I
Speaker 1: didn't have the floor at the beginning of the show,
Speaker 1: and you asked me this, So here we go. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go into my actual take on this. I don't
Speaker 1: really I don't think that this is an attention thing
Speaker 1: for Tom Brady. When he says that he's going to
Speaker 1: kind of take time and think about it with his family,
Speaker 1: I believe him in that, and I think that he's
Speaker 1: serious here because he said that a fairretwell tour would
Speaker 1: not be something that he wanted to do and that
Speaker 1: he would find it distracting. But I think the main
Speaker 1: reason why I take this so seriously is because Tom
Speaker 1: Brady was on Howard Stern like two years ago maybe,
Speaker 1: and it was a really interesting interview. And in that
Speaker 1: interview he talked about his family and his relationship with them,
Speaker 1: and his relationship with Giselle and how they had gone
Speaker 1: to marriage counseling together, and how so much of what
Speaker 1: he does it really is like a family decision. And
Speaker 1: when you think about the supreme effort that goes into
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, tom being Tom Brady, that is not something
Speaker 1: that is easy, and that's taking away a lot of
Speaker 1: time from his family and from his personal life. I mean,
Speaker 1: he is like seventy years old maybe at this point,
Speaker 1: like he actually could be eighty years old at this point.
Speaker 1: But the way that he is playing and the way
Speaker 1: that he puts all of this work into his body
Speaker 1: and his performance and and everything on the field, that's
Speaker 1: not insignificant. So I think that this it could be
Speaker 1: him going out and it's not a bad way to
Speaker 1: go out. Sure that he didn't win another Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but individually. It was one of his best seasons, so
Speaker 1: it will say, and especially after the way that they
Speaker 1: came back against the Rams. They fell short, but it
Speaker 1: was a dramatic comeback. So if it yeah, Rick, well
Speaker 1: the forty three episodes and it's explicit and it's through
Speaker 1: serious x M. But it does look like sometimes Tom
Speaker 1: Brady's not on it and it's Larry Fitzgerald and um
Speaker 1: Jim Gray, but it does look like Brady has been
Speaker 1: on quite quite a bit. Started weekly. I think my
Speaker 1: guests would be they take that radio hit and throw
Speaker 1: it into the podcast, but who knows it's weekly? Uh
Speaker 1: and yeah, and there's Fitzgerald episodes. It's it's very strange.
Speaker 1: It's a good point big we are better and bigger
Speaker 1: than Tom Brady at one thing, Dan, there's no way
Speaker 1: his podcast about it. Let's go the McAfee show, and
Speaker 1: it's like the biggest story in the NFL, like every Tuesday,
Speaker 1: come on to me, because I mean, he's dropping incendiary commentary.
Speaker 1: He doesn't mean say anything, especially if if it is
Speaker 1: that radio hit repurposed, it's like he really doesn't see
Speaker 1: anything on that. I think what he said, I think
Speaker 1: what he said on the podcast, though, was was telling
Speaker 1: he's never talked like this before. That's why it's different.
Speaker 1: We've never had these reports before. He's never talked to
Speaker 1: Al Michael's about it before. I think he is going
Speaker 1: to retire if I had to guess. Obviously have no idea,
Speaker 1: but I just think because he just seems like the
Speaker 1: type football players say this all the time that once
Speaker 1: you're thinking about it, it's like you're already retired and
Speaker 1: I and I would think for Tom Brady that would
Speaker 1: be doubly true. And just the way that he said, look,
Speaker 1: I get joy from playing football, but now outside of football,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of joy for me there as well,
Speaker 1: the team, not you know, deserving anything less than his best,
Speaker 1: so like total commitment, Like I buy that. It almost
Speaker 1: sounds like like he's leaning that way now, almost clearly,
Speaker 1: And it's that emotional time right after the season when
Speaker 1: a lot of players are like that, almost like he's
Speaker 1: trying to convince himself because of course he said it's
Speaker 1: not about necessarily what he wants, and and it has
Speaker 1: been about what he wants, because he would have retired
Speaker 1: years ago if it wasn't about what he wants. And
Speaker 1: so that's why this the timing of it all. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he it sounded like he wanted to get back to
Speaker 1: another super Bowl. They're like, that would have been the
Speaker 1: perfect way to go out, But he's played enough NFL
Speaker 1: seasons to know how brutal it is and how much
Speaker 1: of a chance there is next year that like the
Speaker 1: Bucks are way worse, Like he's realistic enough about that,
Speaker 1: or that he's worse, and that he's also been to
Speaker 1: the end of seasons where his team, you know, stumbled
Speaker 1: to the finish line and people didn't even think about
Speaker 1: him as a top ten quarterback, Like if he is
Speaker 1: going out, to me, this is about as on top
Speaker 1: as it could be, having this two year stint in
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay that even the most optimistic Tom Brady fans
Speaker 1: like like me, never would have thought would have been
Speaker 1: this successful on an individual level or a team level,
Speaker 1: that they got a super Bowl. And so it just
Speaker 1: it just checks out to me that that this that
Speaker 1: he is going to do it, or that he's leaning
Speaker 1: at least at this moment, he's leaning that way and
Speaker 1: he's just trying to give it a little time to
Speaker 1: see to see if he would change it. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's gonna be a Brett Farve type at all.
Speaker 1: I think he would be your mouth. I hate to
Speaker 1: be a dissenting voice like I I agree with Greg.
Speaker 1: I think he's out right, and I admit it's like
Speaker 1: I don't know, we're reading into human character, but that's
Speaker 1: would be my guess. I I really I get real
Speaker 1: concerned for the idea that someone like Tom Brady, who
Speaker 1: like his life the sun is football and that's what
Speaker 1: he revolves around. I get the family angle, and there's
Speaker 1: obviously been tension there because he mentioned that Giselle has
Speaker 1: wanted him to walk away for a while. So to me,
Speaker 1: what concerns me a little bit um beyond the football
Speaker 1: you know, aspect of it is that it sounds like
Speaker 1: a compromise. I maybe not maybe I who what do
Speaker 1: I know? I don't know the family at all, but
Speaker 1: I worry about Tom Brady. Come August, that's suddenly, first
Speaker 1: of all, physically still in great shape, an m VP
Speaker 1: candidate playing at the highest level. Um walking away from
Speaker 1: a game that has been his life, that is his
Speaker 1: identity on so many levels. For family life, I I
Speaker 1: think that can be very fulfilling too. But I'll I
Speaker 1: go back to this interview that I had with Marv
Speaker 1: Levy's wife during Super Bowl Week, and she talked about
Speaker 1: when he finally retired after decades and decades of the
Speaker 1: bio rhythm of football, that he came into the home.
Speaker 1: Suddenly he was there seven and she had learned to
Speaker 1: live with Marv Levy, living this other structured life. And
Speaker 1: she told me, said, look, this thing drove me absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1: Suddenly there's this guy in the house all day long
Speaker 1: who has nothing to do, and it was a terrible fit.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even put the article on NFL dot com
Speaker 1: because it was far too negative. I'm not put projecting
Speaker 1: that on Tom Brady, but I do worry about someone
Speaker 1: who is such a lifer this way, leaving for the
Speaker 1: family and kids. Reason I do it should be known
Speaker 1: because because I have knowledge of this. Dolores Levy hated
Speaker 1: Marv Levy. The marriage was a sham. Look at I like,
Speaker 1: I came away from Mark Burne and I know you're kidding,
Speaker 1: but I came away from the interview thinking they were
Speaker 1: a match because they were never around each other. That's
Speaker 1: how they got Do you want to do it? You
Speaker 1: and do a sangwiche with me? On this too. I
Speaker 1: I totally think he's out. I will happily better swich
Speaker 1: he wouldn't want to do a retirement tour too. And
Speaker 1: he and he kind of he did the Tom Brady
Speaker 1: doc you know, series weekly what was it called on
Speaker 1: ESPN this year, Like he just let go of his
Speaker 1: he just released his clothing, I think commercials and stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like he's sort of he's out. I think he's retiring.
Speaker 1: All right, you want to get on the on the sandwich,
Speaker 1: I got three on the hook, Come on back, tell
Speaker 1: me boy, all right, let's keep moving. Big story though
Speaker 1: your story. All right, let's still top on the personnel carousel?
Speaker 1: Shall we have the bucks and the scenes could both
Speaker 1: stink at the same time. Yeah, the NFC seal taking
Speaker 1: a hit potentially of epic proportions and that rules like yes,
Speaker 1: maybe now I'll go six and eleven. Just so the
Speaker 1: Giants have filled their general manager post hiring Joe Shane
Speaker 1: is a Shane? Is that what we came down on
Speaker 1: the spellings and print, But Joe Shane, he is the
Speaker 1: new general manager of ul Jaman. The Shane is the
Speaker 1: former Bill's assistant GM. He was the right hand man
Speaker 1: up there in Buffalo. So this is a guy that
Speaker 1: helped build that powerhouse Bill's roster or had a certainly
Speaker 1: had a hand in it. So it feels like, so far,
Speaker 1: so good for the Giants. The Bears also have filled
Speaker 1: their GM post hiring, and this one, I don't know.
Speaker 1: For some reason, this one bothers me. Ryan Poles is
Speaker 1: the new GM, which is a too close to Ryan
Speaker 1: pace and also Nick Foles, who was a bad Bear
Speaker 1: Ryan Poles. It drives me nuts. It drives me absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1: If like you, let's say you were you were someone, um,
Speaker 1: a girl or a guy. That's fine too dating someone
Speaker 1: named Ryan. Um, if you break up with Ryan, you
Speaker 1: don't date Ryan. You have to date someone with a
Speaker 1: different name before you go back. Imagine, go ahead, Well
Speaker 1: I'm just that's my personal code. What may maybe you've
Speaker 1: branched into that. No, I was gonna say, my ex
Speaker 1: boyfriend ended up marrying a colleen, Like do we think
Speaker 1: that that's problem? And his name was Gonza? Was it
Speaker 1: back to back? Was it? Was it back to that Colleen? Well,
Speaker 1: then you know what, more power to him. And in
Speaker 1: other news, the favorite to be the new general manager
Speaker 1: of the Minnesota Vikings replacing Rick Spielman. Up there is
Speaker 1: Brown's up and comer vice president Football Operations, gonna annail it,
Speaker 1: Cowessia dopha mensa. By the way, that Sean Payton presscommence
Speaker 1: is still is still going. Can you imagine thinking what's
Speaker 1: going on in your life? Is that important? Like John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis didn't speak this long. Well,
Speaker 1: now he's getting questions. It is this important in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: like he should take all the public questions that that
Speaker 1: they wanted to be started. This press conference started seventy
Speaker 1: three minutes ago. He's a he's a perfect it's a
Speaker 1: perfect fit for Jerry Jones. By the way, those two
Speaker 1: he's the coach of the local football team. I get it.
Speaker 1: But they're asking questions. He's not going to be in
Speaker 1: that setting ever again. So just like him, keep asking,
Speaker 1: all right, we buy a pigs invasion failed, we have
Speaker 1: major problems are and then it's over in five minutes.
Speaker 1: Concise Kennedy esk right, we should mention like that Josh
Speaker 1: that giants higher. You know he's from the Bills. He's
Speaker 1: interviewing Brian Brian Dable as a finalist for that job.
Speaker 1: Dan Quinn is as well for a second interview, but
Speaker 1: it makes it more likely that it's gonna be doable.
Speaker 1: And then with the Chiefs guy going to Minnesota, you
Speaker 1: kind of wonder, uh if they'd bring into Eric b
Speaker 1: Enemy and supposedly he has a relationship with Damiko Ryan's
Speaker 1: he was in San Francisco, who was going to get
Speaker 1: a second interview in Minnesota? So those might be two
Speaker 1: names to watch. Is gonna need compromising photos of someone's
Speaker 1: like owner to get a head coaching job? It just
Speaker 1: seems that's how this thing is going. Well. This is
Speaker 1: a guy that worked with him closely, so you would
Speaker 1: think it would be telling one way or another if
Speaker 1: he doesn't hire him. I found that the Shane higher
Speaker 1: interesting for the Giants on one little thing that there's
Speaker 1: there's whispers that the Mara that Marrow wants the ownership
Speaker 1: wants um Brian Flores. It was very into Brian Flores.
Speaker 1: But Shane worked under Chris Career for like nine years,
Speaker 1: so like, if anyone's going to get the real story
Speaker 1: on Brian Flores, and probably be I would imagine tilted
Speaker 1: away from Brian Flores, it would be the guy that
Speaker 1: just hired. It just I mean, if you're getting the
Speaker 1: guy that's the guy behind the guy in Buffalo personnel wise,
Speaker 1: and Brian Dable's a red hot offensive coordinator candidate, who's
Speaker 1: going to get a big chair? That just it seems
Speaker 1: to make sense. Dots real quick on the polls higher,
Speaker 1: What did you guys think of George McCay asky picking
Speaker 1: up poles at the airport wearing a Bears jacket and
Speaker 1: jeans and holding poles his hometown as like the card
Speaker 1: for him to recognize him? Apparently Bears Twitter was like
Speaker 1: split on this. Half of them thought it was a
Speaker 1: cheap kind of way to do things. I thought it
Speaker 1: was kind of nice. I thought it was a sweet touch. Makasky,
Speaker 1: the chairperson of the Chicago Bears official title, I like it.
Speaker 1: I think they're just generally very a lot of Bears
Speaker 1: fans which seemed to be generally embarrassed by McCaskey as
Speaker 1: a human. So I'm not sure that it bridged the gap,
Speaker 1: but it seemed like a tender way to int intro him. Mark,
Speaker 1: have you put in a phone call to Adafo Mensa
Speaker 1: to uh perhaps sway him to stay with Cleveland, to
Speaker 1: keep that brain trust or to get that job. Go
Speaker 1: go go work for him in Minnesota. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: kick Mark and Mark off the podcast. Greg, we see
Speaker 1: what you're talking to. Uh No, I've not contacted him.
Speaker 1: But also, you know the Browns, this is the way
Speaker 1: this new things works. They get two third round picks
Speaker 1: um if he takes the job, so we'll see, you know,
Speaker 1: although he probably would have been the guy making those picks.
Speaker 1: So now we've got we've got issues. There's problems. M alright. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's uh hop back on the personnel carousel. Here a
Speaker 1: number of coaches now we're taking second interviews. Greg's going
Speaker 1: to run him down because that's how his brain works.
Speaker 1: He has them all on the tip of his tongue
Speaker 1: right now. The only one I'll share with you is
Speaker 1: that our good friend, Packer's offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett is
Speaker 1: set to have his second interview with the Broncos. That
Speaker 1: was that went down yesterday actually in Denver. We are
Speaker 1: close and I got this update from David Eally on
Speaker 1: the news desk, and we know the news desk apocalypse
Speaker 1: surrounding the head shot and an unnamed talent flagging them
Speaker 1: multiple times Um head coach Nathaniel Hackett in play in play,
Speaker 1: it sounds like they like they they they had Damn
Speaker 1: Quinn for a second one to but Hackett seems to
Speaker 1: be getting a little are buzz If Rogers ends up
Speaker 1: like coming back and going over there, then that would
Speaker 1: kind of seems like con I would hope that wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the reason that you were hiring him, because that
Speaker 1: you know, it might not be up to might not
Speaker 1: be up to Aaron Rodgers. Well, they also interviewed his
Speaker 1: his qbad they've interviewed the Packers QB coach for that
Speaker 1: head coaching job too, So you wonder if Hackett brings
Speaker 1: him over as O C and suddenly you know, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: you know who has backed Nathaniel Hackett as a head
Speaker 1: coaching higher for a while now. It maybe gets into
Speaker 1: the head a little bit and thinking it's nice and
Speaker 1: Denver does feel like a modern day Broncos moved to
Speaker 1: to really roll out the red carpet without any promises.
Speaker 1: I would say, like whether you're Hackett, who's you know?
Speaker 1: All right? He's pretty good candidate in terms of hot names.
Speaker 1: He's connected to a team that's done very well in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Dan Quinn's an even better example, who's
Speaker 1: coming off a year where he's completely rehabbed his image.
Speaker 1: Would you not go anywhere and, knowing what we know
Speaker 1: about our league unless the star quarterback was there, It
Speaker 1: just too much of a risk to join a team
Speaker 1: that doesn't have a guy in place, because you only
Speaker 1: get one to maybe three years, but probably one to
Speaker 1: two years. Are you really gonna roll the dice if
Speaker 1: you have your pick of teams. If I'm Quinn, I
Speaker 1: would not leave that position unless they absolutely had a
Speaker 1: rock star landing spot. Yeah, the second time around it right?
Speaker 1: I think the second time around that's right, because he's
Speaker 1: he's earned the life changing money. Like Nathaniel Hackett, who
Speaker 1: knows if he ever actually ever gets another offer. It's
Speaker 1: tough to be choosy. Some of these guys who get
Speaker 1: in the interview cycles are gone from it forever pretty soon.
Speaker 1: I mean he he can look to his dad as
Speaker 1: an interesting example. And Paul Hackett was supposed to be
Speaker 1: the next Bill Walsh. His dad never quite happened, and
Speaker 1: Bill Wash I believe, was you know, furious at him
Speaker 1: for leaving, leaving the nest in San Francisco back in
Speaker 1: the day, and it's weird. Nathaniel Hackett isn't calling plays
Speaker 1: in Green Bay. You know, when he was calling plays,
Speaker 1: it was for the blake Boarder Jaguars, not you know,
Speaker 1: was it wasn't beloved by any means. Hmm. Interesting, All right,
Speaker 1: let's uh any other coaching coaches you guys want to
Speaker 1: throw out there? All right, good, let's move on and
Speaker 1: other news. I thought I found this interesting. Andy Reid,
Speaker 1: He's been on both sides of the overtime coin toss,
Speaker 1: good and bad. Where you're trying to, you know, extend
Speaker 1: your season, get to a Super Bowl, you lose the
Speaker 1: coin toss in a classic game, you're great quarterback never
Speaker 1: gets the ball. Uh. Andy Reid empathizes with the Bills
Speaker 1: after that difficult divisional playoff loss in buff For Buffalo,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be opposed to an ot rules change, Reid,
Speaker 1: said Ian Rappaport, our own Ian Rappaport, the NFL Network insider.
Speaker 1: UH said that it is potentially on the table, Uh,
Speaker 1: that a change could happen. Um, we shall see. Now,
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this, Greg. We talked about it
Speaker 1: on the Sunday Night Show. Um, how you pointed out
Speaker 1: correctly that if it was both teams get the ball
Speaker 1: regardless of what happens in the first possession, it actually
Speaker 1: favors the second team because they know what they need
Speaker 1: the team that gets the ball second. I should say,
Speaker 1: all right, so what if you kept the coin flip,
Speaker 1: whoever wins the coin flip gets to elect whether they
Speaker 1: get the ball first or second. You'll almost always I
Speaker 1: would think, take second strategically. Uh, and that way you
Speaker 1: still the flip still gets to decide who has the advantage,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't potentially end the game without both quarterbacks
Speaker 1: slash offenses seeing the field. How about that. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's better. I don't think so. I mean, I
Speaker 1: just I don't think there's a better overtime situation. I
Speaker 1: think overtime inherently is gonna be random, so you have
Speaker 1: to win in regulation to avoid that. But any recipe
Speaker 1: where it's like you could be playing three overtimes essentially
Speaker 1: because the possessions keep going back and forth like college. Uh,
Speaker 1: it seems crazy. Z for a league that seems that
Speaker 1: sounds obsessed about player safety. It's just it's like football.
Speaker 1: If you get to the end and oh, the defense
Speaker 1: is is gassed and like they can't stop them anymore.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a time for the game to end,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, I don't. I just
Speaker 1: don't see why that. I guess this is my my
Speaker 1: point about this whole thing, and Mark, I'm cure. So
Speaker 1: you think, like if if you're gonna and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying this to you specifically, Greg, but everyone that's being
Speaker 1: about the overtime rules, well we need to have everyone
Speaker 1: that has to have a plan. Now I just shared mine.
Speaker 1: Gregg shot it down. That's fine with somebody. We need ideas.
Speaker 1: We need to figure this out because it does feel
Speaker 1: like the current plan just doesn't work. I would just
Speaker 1: say with the player safety thing, like I wouldn't change
Speaker 1: regular season at all. I don't think anyone's pushing to
Speaker 1: do that. But when you get into a playoffs scenario
Speaker 1: like we've seen it, it robbed obviously Patrick Mahomes of
Speaker 1: a chance to match Tom Brady a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: This time a Homes is on the upper hand of that,
Speaker 1: but it robbed us have seen Josh Allen, and I
Speaker 1: think it kind of stole the spirit of that game away.
Speaker 1: So I you know, I I'm hearing lots of good ideas.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to cook one up because I think
Speaker 1: I would say you do it. I think that they
Speaker 1: should play the full overtime period until the very end,
Speaker 1: and then if they're still tied there, each team gets
Speaker 1: one offensive possession. If they so much, I think players
Speaker 1: would not have to play. How about this craft factoring
Speaker 1: kind like minutes though that kind of like I'm factoring
Speaker 1: and everything said, everything that everyone is saying, including the
Speaker 1: player safety, which is something that the NFL, even though
Speaker 1: if sometimes it doesn't align with that the realities of
Speaker 1: how the league's moving forward that they talk a lot
Speaker 1: about player safety. Keep the current modified overtime rules in
Speaker 1: place regular season, like Mark saying, that's fine, it's a
Speaker 1: regular season. In the playoffs, you have a newly modified
Speaker 1: overtime situation, uh, that is shifted to make sure these
Speaker 1: teams get a fair shake because the championship is now
Speaker 1: on the line. It's second season. How about that modified
Speaker 1: postseason overtime. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think
Speaker 1: that that that seems to serve everyone. And Greg, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're talking about like the exhaustion factor and how can
Speaker 1: we possibly have them play five more minutes. This may
Speaker 1: occur like one one This would occur maybe like one
Speaker 1: or two times in the playoffs. Tops I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's it just seems like that game, the rule change
Speaker 1: has come off of Premier Island game moments like that.
Speaker 1: That's when that's what triggers the NFL to make trait.
Speaker 1: That's why Andy Reid had to say that he was
Speaker 1: boxed in a corner because he was literally the one
Speaker 1: who brought up the rules proposal change four years ago
Speaker 1: and it didn't go anywhere. Like the Chiefs, who are
Speaker 1: the ones who who wanted the rules change, and maybe
Speaker 1: the league is maybe the people who are making decisions
Speaker 1: has changed, but I don't know, it didn't work. Taken
Speaker 1: on this, it's taken on the like it is a
Speaker 1: very tedious argument on Twitter at this point. But I
Speaker 1: think that from the spirit of what we watched Bill's Chiefs,
Speaker 1: I would like to see a change a little. I
Speaker 1: guess part of me thinks, like, hey, news flash, it's
Speaker 1: all ran Like randomness is such a huge factor. We
Speaker 1: add on all these narratives after the fact, but it's
Speaker 1: like it's it's a random thing, and that like can
Speaker 1: be uncomfortable as fans, Uh that the coin flip does matter.
Speaker 1: I think it's only been like fifty three percent of
Speaker 1: teams in general I have that won the coin flip
Speaker 1: of one, So it hasn't been like that huge offs
Speaker 1: the playoffs and the playoffs that's happened more. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's that's right, but like, there's so everything
Speaker 1: was random to get to that point, and it's and
Speaker 1: that's I think what happens with an overtime At that
Speaker 1: point we don't adjust anything in human existence. Now my point,
Speaker 1: the random nature of all all things is I mean
Speaker 1: what no, I'm saying, like and like to get to overtime,
Speaker 1: and there's so many factors that had to come into
Speaker 1: play before before that. Like I can accept a little
Speaker 1: bit of randomness with the coin flip because it's not
Speaker 1: that big. Ultimately, you can still go win a ball
Speaker 1: game a million other ways. You um pointed out Andy
Speaker 1: Reid four years ago. That was after that classic between
Speaker 1: the Patriots and Chiefs. I assume, uh, in the a
Speaker 1: f C title game when the Chiefs lost the coin
Speaker 1: toss at Arrowhead and never got the ball. I love
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. Um, what about um the idea that same
Speaker 1: thing with how the past interference rule came to be
Speaker 1: a high visibility Playoffs instance, being a catalyst for change.
Speaker 1: I wonder because that's being seen by many people as
Speaker 1: well that didn't work out. Well. I'm just saying, um,
Speaker 1: I think I feel like you're in the minority on
Speaker 1: this crag. I think a lot of people would like
Speaker 1: to experiment with change and maybe it doesn't work. Even
Speaker 1: the past interference thing, Yes, it failed miserably, but I
Speaker 1: don't mind that the NFL was open to trying different
Speaker 1: things to make the product better. I'm with you, I
Speaker 1: just haven't heard the thing that gets me excited about
Speaker 1: something different. I was all for when they changed the
Speaker 1: overtime and that was a three year process. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember that was in the playoffs only for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, right that was that was back in
Speaker 1: or so, and they eventually adopted it, and it's been better.
Speaker 1: It's been better. But I haven't heard one that I like.
Speaker 1: I don't remember anything. It's just I wrote a lot
Speaker 1: of p f T posts about it. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of excitement. Sean McDermott, Bill's coach,
Speaker 1: speaking of that classic game, uh, he said, he has
Speaker 1: watched the last thirteen set. This is why, this is
Speaker 1: why Sean Payton retired today, quote unquote retired. He's watched
Speaker 1: the last thirteen seconds of regulation that led to that
Speaker 1: heartbreaking loss for Buffalo a million times. Let's listen to
Speaker 1: McDermott and this is good that we have sounds that
Speaker 1: means that Sean McDermott is still alive. I watched it
Speaker 1: on video and I've watched it over and over my
Speaker 1: head a million times, in my stomach a million more. Um.
Speaker 1: I'll continue to watch it in my mind and in
Speaker 1: my cut for for years. I wrote about in the
Speaker 1: Power Rankings this week where time will tell well, is
Speaker 1: this the final agonizing roadblock for the Bills and their
Speaker 1: climb to Lombardi glory or will this be the loss
Speaker 1: that sticks to the ribs like no other loss since
Speaker 1: those Super Bowl defeats? Like, we don't know, the only
Speaker 1: thing we do know is now the Bills need to
Speaker 1: go through another entire offseason, another training camp, another regular
Speaker 1: season into the playoffs just to get back to this
Speaker 1: point again. It's not just physical now for the Bills,
Speaker 1: and where that organization is at its mental as well.
Speaker 1: There's just so many heartbreaks too. I mean, when you
Speaker 1: think about the history of the Bills and you have
Speaker 1: the Music City Miracle, and you have the Wide Right,
Speaker 1: and you have now like the thirteen seconds, and the
Speaker 1: fact that Sean McDermott and all of the players are
Speaker 1: going to replay this over and over and over in
Speaker 1: their minds. It's just it's so heavy on them. And
Speaker 1: I really hope though, it is the beginning for this
Speaker 1: team and not the end, because it really could go
Speaker 1: either way. And we've seen it work with Kansas City
Speaker 1: and the Chiefs when when they sort of came out
Speaker 1: on the wrong end of things and now they're trying
Speaker 1: to get back to their third straight Super Bowl. But
Speaker 1: there's so many things that need to break right for
Speaker 1: teams and injuries. I mean, you're talking about player, personnel, schedule,
Speaker 1: all of it. And the one thing that stood out
Speaker 1: to me when I was looking through mc dermott's quotes
Speaker 1: just him talking about that plane ride home, and obviously
Speaker 1: all of us can imagine what it was like, but
Speaker 1: he said, if you saw that plane ride on the
Speaker 1: way home, you would not come away with the impression
Speaker 1: that we're fine. And that's that's stating the obvious, but
Speaker 1: just putting yourself in their shoes flying back from that
Speaker 1: just utter devastats, right, And it's sort of what I
Speaker 1: was getting at with like the randomness of it all.
Speaker 1: Like I guess I just don't buy that the Bills
Speaker 1: didn't have some inherent championship level qualities in side of
Speaker 1: them that prevented them from winning the title this year.
Speaker 1: To me, they they with it with a couple of
Speaker 1: little things happening different that didn't have to do with them.
Speaker 1: You know, Let's say they score in the next plate,
Speaker 1: like then they win the super Bowl. They were a
Speaker 1: championship team, but they didn't win it. And that's that's
Speaker 1: what happens in sports sometimes. And they'll have other cracks
Speaker 1: at it. Josh Allen is too good for them not
Speaker 1: to be a factor of it all. But but you
Speaker 1: don't know. You just don't know that you're gonna be
Speaker 1: there in that same sort of they'll be relevant, you'll
Speaker 1: be relevant, but maybe they won't be that good. You
Speaker 1: just you just don't know. And to Connie's point, I mean,
Speaker 1: Sean Payton probably still speaking as we speak. Um, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you, I can tell you guys, he's still there.
Speaker 1: I don't know. He can tell you Andrew is taking
Speaker 1: it from him in same for the local football. You know,
Speaker 1: he's just wrapping a bow on it, you know, getting
Speaker 1: him into the next show, real aid Lincoln of sorts. Um.
Speaker 1: But I mean those three straight, you know, heart wrenching
Speaker 1: playoff losses the Saints had, well can they get back there?
Speaker 1: Because they're that good. Suddenly there's no Sean Payton, Suddenly
Speaker 1: there's no Drew Brees. Suddenly there's total chaos, right that
Speaker 1: and and all that said, like, it's got to kill
Speaker 1: Sean McDermott watching that film too, because you know he
Speaker 1: don't think watching it for giggles, he's got to get
Speaker 1: his binoculars out to find his safeties. On those two plays,
Speaker 1: I fired it up there forty yards down the field.
Speaker 1: What are they doing there? What are they doing there?
Speaker 1: They weren't in the place they like, the safety came
Speaker 1: up to top Kelsey. He did about as good as
Speaker 1: he could have. He was like standing at the goal line.
Speaker 1: Something something strange broke down there, and he said it
Speaker 1: was execution. McDermott. He wouldn't go into that, even beyond
Speaker 1: the kickoff thing, but something strange happened with the execution
Speaker 1: of the of the defense for those last two he
Speaker 1: was hired to be a defensive masterminds that that's tough
Speaker 1: to stomach as a defensive I was on Good Morning
Speaker 1: Football this morning, and Gabriel Davis, you have the four
Speaker 1: touchdowns in a losing effort, was on being interviewed right before,
Speaker 1: and the man looked like he was at his own funeral,
Speaker 1: like it was a very very it's a very bittersweet,
Speaker 1: strange position for somebody like Gabriel Davis, who just had
Speaker 1: the greatest professional day he'll ever have in his life
Speaker 1: most likely, and and if things just went a little
Speaker 1: bit different in those hashtag thirteen seconds, he's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest stories in the NFL. Uh. Instead, it's just
Speaker 1: kind of an afterthought. And by the way, on that note,
Speaker 1: thirteen seconds not not the thirteen second miracle, not the
Speaker 1: thirteen second game. These all time classics need that shorthand description.
Speaker 1: Thirteen seconds. You nailed it. Um. By the way, you
Speaker 1: know that press conference going ninety minutes. Little American history
Speaker 1: for you, guys. William Henry Harrison UM was the president
Speaker 1: for just thirty one days. He passed away in eighteen
Speaker 1: forty one um after he gave the longest inauguration speech
Speaker 1: of any US president outdoors in Washington, he fell seriously
Speaker 1: ill um potentially because of his exposure to the elements,
Speaker 1: and he died one month later. So it's just like
Speaker 1: it's important too. And that was the guy who just
Speaker 1: got elected president. And I'm sure his speech was shorter
Speaker 1: than Sean Payton's. Just now. I think Payton's was indoors.
Speaker 1: It looks pretty warm down there in New Orleans. I
Speaker 1: think he'll be I think his health his he looks
Speaker 1: really in good shape. Shout out William Henry, how is up?
Speaker 1: Wherever you want? Big man? Your son's namesake? Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that the story that inspired you to name your
Speaker 1: son Harrison? Well, the craziest thing is I wanted his
Speaker 1: name to be Henry and my wife said no, So
Speaker 1: is it because you like your friends with your friends
Speaker 1: with an adult Henry? Yes, so it would be the
Speaker 1: second Or what about what about VP? Yes, John Tyler
Speaker 1: in a big spot, I get tapped to be the
Speaker 1: vice And that's cool. I'm beep. A month later, I'm poosa,
Speaker 1: not bad, all right? In other news, I'm just saying
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was a bummer that his colleague and
Speaker 1: the president. I think I think we all just were
Speaker 1: stuck on the word you said before that, but we
Speaker 1: got we figured it. Yeah, yeah, that was it. Okay, Hey,
Speaker 1: good news, um, fire up, turn up your amps, tune
Speaker 1: up your guitars, because the Carolina Panthers landed their rock
Speaker 1: star offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo. Baby, let's hear another tasty
Speaker 1: liquorickyd rock God. So that's good. That's good for the Panthers.
Speaker 1: And finally, late Night with Jim er Say, the Colts
Speaker 1: owner at one a m. Eastern Time this morning, tweeted
Speaker 1: the following to the masses, you can see clear as
Speaker 1: day in the final eight NFL team playoffs you need
Speaker 1: you need a QB and offense comma who can score
Speaker 1: thirty or more in regulation olypses, and a defense that
Speaker 1: can hold an opponent under thirty slammer football. The the
Speaker 1: last four games. I wrote this down somewhere here we
Speaker 1: are the last four games for the Indianapolis Colts, point
Speaker 1: total eleven. So it is what it is. M It's
Speaker 1: all out there, isn't it. Wait? Can I just tell
Speaker 1: you something that happen during that That was a wonderful summary.
Speaker 1: But like in the background, and Colleen, if you're watching
Speaker 1: this on YouTube, a door opens and an adult male
Speaker 1: walks through the door with like a barking dog. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that was Gonza, right, but that was spot. We
Speaker 1: don't know if that's my that's my lover back there.
Speaker 1: He just like walked over to the corner of the
Speaker 1: kid should and started pointing to his wrist like time
Speaker 1: and his hands up. Because I've been in the kitchen
Speaker 1: now for a while. I think he's hungry. I don't
Speaker 1: know he's yelling still, who's God? I think he is.
Speaker 1: He think just because he's hungry, we should wrap up
Speaker 1: the show or you should jump off. Exactly he was.
Speaker 1: He didn't make you he was. By the way, I
Speaker 1: had that great set up about er say in the
Speaker 1: future of the cult, it gets blown away because John
Speaker 1: can't stay in his bedroom for another ten minutes. Uh.
Speaker 1: I thought the think was fun. I didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about all that, so I thought it was informative and
Speaker 1: bye bye, Carson wentz. I love that. I love John
Speaker 1: gonz hijacked the show. There. He that's his nature. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is gonna be an interesting QB carousel because it's
Speaker 1: becoming increasingly apparent, apparent that Jim Ury is all done
Speaker 1: with Carson wentz Um. All right, that's what's happening in
Speaker 1: the news. Let's take a ache and then let's get
Speaker 1: to let's get to Jordan Rodrigue. All right, welcome back.
Speaker 1: It is time to welcome. I guess we're all excited
Speaker 1: to speak with this woman. She covers the rams for
Speaker 1: the athletics. She's also the co host of the eleven
Speaker 1: Personnel pod. She is the great Jordan Rodrigue. What's up, Jordan,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Around the NFL Podcast. How are you?
Speaker 1: I seem collected on the surface, but I'm internally freaking out.
Speaker 1: Big fan of the show. I told Erica I was
Speaker 1: going to say that probably sixty times. So just start
Speaker 1: cutting me off or editing it out or something when
Speaker 1: I start picking. By the way, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I mentioned that, which which Which is your favorite? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That one, you can, that's that's the one. That's the
Speaker 1: thing with Schreeger. Jordan, and I don't know if you
Speaker 1: saw the episode a couple of years ago, listened to
Speaker 1: the episode. We we asked Peter Schreeger the same question,
Speaker 1: and then he said Greg, and we're all like, no, well,
Speaker 1: remember this happening, just I asked. I asked Peter Strigger
Speaker 1: which one of us he respected the most, and he
Speaker 1: did not hesitate and said Greg, while Dan and I
Speaker 1: were sitting there, uh, somewhat thunderstudy. It's refreshing. You give
Speaker 1: some small times you expect you know, oh, no, one's
Speaker 1: the faith, you know that, but he just gave you
Speaker 1: the truth. And that's nice refreshing for Greg Jordan's you
Speaker 1: might be my and I think maybe the whole group
Speaker 1: will contend this as well. Favorite Beat Reporter at the Athletic,
Speaker 1: which is quite a title because there's so much great
Speaker 1: talent there. But you're you're such a great writer. You
Speaker 1: cover this, you cover the sport and that team so well.
Speaker 1: And why don't we start this way with the Rams,
Speaker 1: because I thought the way you put it in your
Speaker 1: right up after that classic near meltdown turned um amazing
Speaker 1: victory in Tampa, that there are some demons with this
Speaker 1: team right there, whether it's uh Stafford struggles in the past,
Speaker 1: even Matt Gay the kicker going to Tampa and Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh now has to slay another there's demon here, obviously,
Speaker 1: with the San Francisco forty niners and the other boy
Speaker 1: genius on the other sideline. Uh, do you think the
Speaker 1: Rams have that mental capability to step on the throat
Speaker 1: of an opponent, get to the super Bowl and completely
Speaker 1: rewrite the narrative of a lot of people connected to
Speaker 1: this organization? You know what has been so uh insane
Speaker 1: chaotic covering this team, I think in a good way
Speaker 1: because I think especially when you're a beat writer, which
Speaker 1: I love being, UM and thank you for saying that,
Speaker 1: although I can't want to say that because I am
Speaker 1: the guest on your show today. UM. The you get
Speaker 1: to see we we do rankings actually pretty regularly. UM.
Speaker 1: Zach Keeper is like furious at us right now, but
Speaker 1: you you have turned out to be on top. Sorry
Speaker 1: Zach here, Zach Keeper is the ultimate talent there. But
Speaker 1: I'm feeling pretty proud of this. UM. So it's you
Speaker 1: get to see incremental change over time and you get
Speaker 1: to sort of study that, right, And that's what I
Speaker 1: love about covering this team is because they've had major
Speaker 1: catalytic changes, but then also all the little things that
Speaker 1: are happening between those spaces, and that's where I think
Speaker 1: they do allow some of these what I call them,
Speaker 1: They allowed some of these demons to sort of peek
Speaker 1: through and sneak through and almost catch them by surprise
Speaker 1: at times. Four fumbles will certainly catch you by surprise
Speaker 1: in the middle of the game. Um. But I think
Speaker 1: with with this team, I worry less. The interesting thing,
Speaker 1: a personality with them that's developed is almost worry less
Speaker 1: about how things go for them when things are calm,
Speaker 1: when they have a lead, when they can exhale, and
Speaker 1: I worry. I worry more about, you know, what they
Speaker 1: do in those moments. I worry less about what happens
Speaker 1: when their backs up against the wall. All through December,
Speaker 1: you saw them winning games when all of these external
Speaker 1: factors were affecting their team, you know, massive COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: outbreak and um, you know, losing Robert Woods earlier in November,
Speaker 1: um onboarding two new players, just all of the things
Speaker 1: and moving parts that are swirling around this team. And
Speaker 1: then and then them navigating through that as well as
Speaker 1: they did in you know, five in a row, and
Speaker 1: then and then ultimately finally a seventeen point lead against
Speaker 1: again the forty Niners, who they could have knocked out
Speaker 1: of postseason contention and and exhaling for the first time
Speaker 1: going into the halftime, going into the locker room at halftime,
Speaker 1: and then it comes they come back out and everything
Speaker 1: hits the fans. So it's it's very it's been so
Speaker 1: interesting kind of gauging the personality. It's almost like they
Speaker 1: work better when there's chaos happening all around them. And
Speaker 1: I don't know who that's reflective of. Matthew Stafford certainly
Speaker 1: is comfortable, um, operating through that chaos. We we nickname
Speaker 1: him on my podcast darkly Chaotic Matthew Stafford because um,
Speaker 1: he does seem to navigate that headspace rather well. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's been interesting this team. It's almost like they
Speaker 1: can never let themselves get comfortable in any way because
Speaker 1: things start slipping through the cracks. In that regard. I
Speaker 1: love that you nick nicknamed him darkly chaotic because that's
Speaker 1: exactly what I bookmarked in your article from this week
Speaker 1: when you described his tendency to dip too far into
Speaker 1: darkly chaotic decision making and also the fact that he
Speaker 1: embraced that chaos and kind of found clarity at the
Speaker 1: end of that game. But can you explain just like
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the dark place that his
Speaker 1: teammates kind of described him going into after that spike. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was kind of they felt they saw him, um,
Speaker 1: maybe leave leave this plane and enter another one. I
Speaker 1: think you know, it was. It was very interesting. That's
Speaker 1: quite the reason why I love this team, right, because
Speaker 1: I mean I love covering this team because they they
Speaker 1: are so fascinating in the little things that they let slip.
Speaker 1: And that was a personality slip in him that we
Speaker 1: hadn't really seen. You see the competitor um. You see
Speaker 1: the guy who wants the ball in his hands at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, regardless of whether or not
Speaker 1: they have a lead. He wants to stay on the field.
Speaker 1: He wants to be participating, um, and certainly when when
Speaker 1: things aren't going their way, he wants to be the
Speaker 1: guy that helps sort of settle the calm, even if
Speaker 1: he is part of the reason why that chaos has
Speaker 1: happened in the first place. And that was a a
Speaker 1: sort of explosive moment when he spiked that ball, because
Speaker 1: his teammates sort of saw this different look in his eyes.
Speaker 1: As Sean McVeigh always says, you know, the talks about
Speaker 1: people look in their eyes right, and so they sort
Speaker 1: of saw saw this different UM, this different person who
Speaker 1: really does elevate in those moments. And that's why I always,
Speaker 1: UM find him a fascinating study because he does invite that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he does turn the ball or he he did
Speaker 1: earlier in the season. Post season, he's been excellent, but
Speaker 1: he was turning the ball over at an opportune times
Speaker 1: in certain moments, but you never felt like there was
Speaker 1: this implosion. UM. And then sort of he channeled that
Speaker 1: in the end of the game, UM, all of that
Speaker 1: sort of chaos that he's adept at navigating sometimes even
Speaker 1: if it's self inflicted, and it almost seemed to just
Speaker 1: just burst out of him in that spike and his
Speaker 1: teammates are like, whoa man. So it was it was
Speaker 1: really fascinating and I do think and then him talking
Speaker 1: postgame is sometimes you have to go into that place
Speaker 1: and learn how to embrace that place, which I think
Speaker 1: we've seen over the course of his career. UM. Certainly
Speaker 1: to me, that's a psychological go component of this is
Speaker 1: is learning how to be that person and embrace that
Speaker 1: part of you, UM, even when things go wrong, even
Speaker 1: when it's your fault. If things go wrong, that makes
Speaker 1: me so much more interested in Matthew Stafford that he
Speaker 1: has sort of a dark inner region that he channels
Speaker 1: during games. Very intriguing. But I mean, like, so it's
Speaker 1: obviously such a weather worn um fact at this point
Speaker 1: that the Niners have stomped them, you know, taken in
Speaker 1: six in a row. But in terms of the team's psychology,
Speaker 1: the potential weight of that, you know, where weeks removed
Speaker 1: from them melting down against the Niners, that which were
Speaker 1: obviously changed the complexion of the NFC playoffs drastically. Is
Speaker 1: there a weight are they are? Is this a new
Speaker 1: opportunity where they're able to take all that and put
Speaker 1: it on a boat and just float it out into
Speaker 1: the into the ocean or is it something that they
Speaker 1: think about that Sean McVeigh thinks about, you know, dealing
Speaker 1: with Kyle Shanahan, who has just owned them. It's it's
Speaker 1: such an outlier for the Rams, Like where are they
Speaker 1: neck up? I think they wanted to You hear guys
Speaker 1: talk about wanting it this way and and you know,
Speaker 1: you lose to a team six six times. I think
Speaker 1: that says something about you um as a group, as
Speaker 1: a person, for for wanting this to be the case,
Speaker 1: and I think it's because this would be the ultimate
Speaker 1: way to sort of to shake these guys in the end,
Speaker 1: to really sort of prove that they belong, to really
Speaker 1: set those roots back into the ground after getting here
Speaker 1: and having such early success early on after they moved
Speaker 1: back to Los Angeles, and to really build around that
Speaker 1: that substance. The Rams have a lot of style, and
Speaker 1: they get style points left, right and sideways, um all
Speaker 1: through the year for the moves they make and for
Speaker 1: the things that they can do, and then the passing
Speaker 1: concepts they have and some of the star defensive players,
Speaker 1: but winning beating a team that you have, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: for lack of all other you know, irony and storylines
Speaker 1: that were possible, this is the most ironic storyline that
Speaker 1: they could have faced. And this is also the one
Speaker 1: that I think if they get past this provides them
Speaker 1: with the most substance, shows the most resilience, and the
Speaker 1: most substance that they have so um work toward proving
Speaker 1: um sort of despite a lot of external conversation about
Speaker 1: you know, what they're not, and I think it does
Speaker 1: also show this does show what they're not. They had
Speaker 1: a chance to close. They had a chance to eliminate
Speaker 1: these guys and they didn't. They allowed them to sort
Speaker 1: of creep back in, just like they did in the game.
Speaker 1: And so you know, they want this chance to prove
Speaker 1: um that that this is who they really are, you know,
Speaker 1: not the guys who let other people hang around, but
Speaker 1: the guys who can control their own fate. Um. And
Speaker 1: I think part of the thing that helps to um,
Speaker 1: you know, I would think it's a mental technique as well,
Speaker 1: knowing that you can get out to a lead in
Speaker 1: front of a team that is has uh, you know,
Speaker 1: six times in a row just handled you, knowing that
Speaker 1: you can get out to that lead, and then um
Speaker 1: figuring out that new part of yourself where you do clothes. Well,
Speaker 1: that's the thing about the Rams, Like in that first
Speaker 1: half when they got up seventeen, thing, do they look
Speaker 1: like the best team in the NFL. They should have
Speaker 1: been up against the Bucks, the defending champs thirty four
Speaker 1: to three. At one point that looked like Jaguars Patriots
Speaker 1: for a while. It was just total domination. And what
Speaker 1: the forty Niners have done so well over the years
Speaker 1: I think is overwhelmed them with physicality. You know, they
Speaker 1: stopped the Rams running game last time around, and once
Speaker 1: you got into the second half, they started winning the
Speaker 1: pass rush battle. Uh, and they started pushing the Rams
Speaker 1: around running bus. So to me, I would imagine that
Speaker 1: feels great, Like that's the ultimate challenge. I'm just wondering, like,
Speaker 1: as someone that's watched this team and seeing Sean McVeigh
Speaker 1: coach upfront, do you do you think some of this
Speaker 1: giving up the lead and the lack of killer instinct
Speaker 1: Dan talks about, is it goes up to him? Because
Speaker 1: the thing that I'm always surprised about is how conservative
Speaker 1: he is by nature, not you know, fourth down decisions,
Speaker 1: maybe running the ball more when when you have the lead,
Speaker 1: even though the past is working, like in a game
Speaker 1: like Tampa, and then maybe just spinning forward to this
Speaker 1: one when the running game is not working, Like, do
Speaker 1: you trust Sean mc way to approach this like we're
Speaker 1: just gonna throw it on him, like we are not
Speaker 1: going to be content just trying to get to the
Speaker 1: finish line here, Let's let's blow this team out. Let's
Speaker 1: be aggressive, because he hasn't he hasn't always been that coach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think one of the blocks that he faces and
Speaker 1: has so often against this team. Is um, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you do when all of the normal things
Speaker 1: don't work? Um? Do you keep trying those things? Or
Speaker 1: do you try to push through even if it makes
Speaker 1: you uncomfortable or takes you to a part of yourself
Speaker 1: that you aren't usually showing in terms of that lack
Speaker 1: of conservatism that he normally does show and display so often.
Speaker 1: And that surprised me to come in to cover this team,
Speaker 1: because you don't look at this team on paper and think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they almost quite literally never go for it on fourth
Speaker 1: down or any of those things. And and so I
Speaker 1: think that, um to me, in order to if you
Speaker 1: if you're faced with a similar situation, and let's face it,
Speaker 1: the planets are aligning for all of this to be
Speaker 1: really similar to what we've seen in over the last
Speaker 1: couple of times, because it seems like that the story
Speaker 1: is written this way. And and to me, that's you
Speaker 1: have to take the different path at that time. You
Speaker 1: have to keep being aggressive because um, he was plenty
Speaker 1: aggressive in the first half of that game, and just
Speaker 1: like what you're saying, Greg, he sort of you sort
Speaker 1: of turtle up a little bit and you sort of Um,
Speaker 1: you know, play to not lose, but I don't think
Speaker 1: you can do that anymore. I think you have to
Speaker 1: force yourself out of that box. You have to force
Speaker 1: yourself out of that comfort zone of what the safest
Speaker 1: decisions are and trust that this is a team that
Speaker 1: again does operate really well in that crazy space. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's a really important factor he
Speaker 1: he's um trying to or should be trying to unlearn
Speaker 1: and then relearn at this point of the process because
Speaker 1: the rest of it hasn't worked. It really hasn't, and
Speaker 1: especially when a team like the forty niners is such
Speaker 1: a bad matchup for the Rams, in part because they
Speaker 1: can flood those margins, they can sort of u turn
Speaker 1: on their heads the spaces in which someone is playing
Speaker 1: it too safe. Um. And I think that's been one
Speaker 1: of the biggest difference makers in these two teams, and
Speaker 1: the way that they're ethos is sort of composed for
Speaker 1: for that reason, and I think Sean McBay needs to
Speaker 1: almost like punch his way through that. Yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be fascinating to see if the Rams, if the game
Speaker 1: script plays out similarly in Los Angeles has a as
Speaker 1: a lead. Do you let your veteran quarterback, the one
Speaker 1: that you met by happenstance in Cabo Incabo, do you
Speaker 1: let him take you to the super Bowl. I kind
Speaker 1: of feel like that would be the way to play it.
Speaker 1: But listen, Sean McBay knows what he's doing. We'll see
Speaker 1: how he plays it if that presents itself. Jordan's you
Speaker 1: have you did it. You said it all. We feel
Speaker 1: more prepared to watch the Rams on Sunday thanks to
Speaker 1: you and everybody. Make sure we we mean it. You
Speaker 1: want to read some really great sports writing right now.
Speaker 1: Read everything from Jordan's over at the Athletic. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, and good luck this weekend. Thanks guys. I
Speaker 1: think my hands are shaking right now. I feel like
Speaker 1: we could have used more compliments, though you said you're
Speaker 1: going to keep complimenting. Yeah, well you guys. This is
Speaker 1: the thing. You guys reverse Sean mcnade me. You don't
Speaker 1: get now, I'm all thrown off. Do not get don't
Speaker 1: get conservative in your game right up now on Sunday night,
Speaker 1: you know you gotta go for it. Stick the landing.
Speaker 1: All right, good stuff, Thank you, Jordan, thank you. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Jan's all right, there she goes, Yeah, she's great. And
Speaker 1: isn't it interesting that the Rams and Mark, I know
Speaker 1: you've had a complicated relationship at times with the Rams
Speaker 1: is a team that maybe gets too much love, but
Speaker 1: they really are a very interesting team at this moment
Speaker 1: in time. I don't mind talking about them, uh for
Speaker 1: extended periods. Well, I think they're right now. I don't
Speaker 1: have a problem with them being, you know, the bell
Speaker 1: of the ball, because they've earned it now. It's when
Speaker 1: they come still covering them once they make it to
Speaker 1: the championship game that like deserve something. I already, like
Speaker 1: two months ago, gave up all willpower to desire anything
Speaker 1: to happen this season, I'm kind of enjoying it because
Speaker 1: things are getting spicy. Um. I would listen to her
Speaker 1: podcast to which I checked out today with Rich Hammond,
Speaker 1: like very good, very good Rams coverage there too, excellent journalist,
Speaker 1: good guests. And I do think, um that if you
Speaker 1: had to power rank who she respects most, I think
Speaker 1: it's probably going to be easy for me to detect.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you later what my findings are. Where am
Speaker 1: I going? Am I still hard? You say that you
Speaker 1: respect and love the Rams more? Now after hearing that
Speaker 1: Stafford goes to these dark places, Oh entirely. I mean
Speaker 1: it adds a layer of complex intrigue that I didn't
Speaker 1: really understand about Matthew Stafford before. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: you're in a dark place if you're in Detroit for
Speaker 1: a decade plus to begin with. But this is entirely
Speaker 1: from a different angle. I love that. I love so.
Speaker 1: I think it was made clear, but just to kind
Speaker 1: of hit it again after Stafford hit that big completion
Speaker 1: to set up the game, Yeah, yes, as it will
Speaker 1: forever be known. Um, after he spikes the ball, he's
Speaker 1: in another world, like he's in a dark place, and
Speaker 1: you would think he'd be ecstatic. He not only did
Speaker 1: he take the hit and make the throw get down
Speaker 1: the field, spiked the ball and give him something, the
Speaker 1: team a chance. He was in some other place. I
Speaker 1: love that. Um, it's just the competitor within and this
Speaker 1: is kind of like his moment after a dozen years
Speaker 1: in Detroit, never really getting the shot. I think he's
Speaker 1: seizing that, and that's something to remember when we decide
Speaker 1: who's gonna win this game on Sunday, that Stafford might
Speaker 1: have that I and the Tiger for a lack of
Speaker 1: a better description, and he and he took the hit
Speaker 1: from Endomican Sue, his old teammate and the zero blitz
Speaker 1: that Jared Goff was the guy who could never solve.
Speaker 1: You have to get rid of Jared Goff. And he
Speaker 1: does that at all. It all like may Maybe he
Speaker 1: was just tired from running down the field, but I
Speaker 1: like that he's sort of blacked out in that moment.
Speaker 1: All right, now we can all black out if we
Speaker 1: want because the show's over, So just feel free to
Speaker 1: do that, but do it safely if that's possible. Um, Connie,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. You're You're always a bright
Speaker 1: shining light in our orbit, So thank you. Great to
Speaker 1: be back. Great you guys check compliments around all over
Speaker 1: the place. You know, it's it's it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: It's a good thing to tell people that you respect,
Speaker 1: that you like being around them, and you're enjoying professionally
Speaker 1: working with him. That's okay, Mark, I know, but I've
Speaker 1: not heard anyone say that Um directed towards me. So
Speaker 1: I like working with you, Mark, I respect you for
Speaker 1: it's a fruitful relationship. We're coming up on our ten
Speaker 1: our ten years together here as co workers. It's been
Speaker 1: totally pure, totally pure years, totally pure. Anyway, check out
Speaker 1: Connie also on the Split Ends podcast with Ricky Hollywood.
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Thursday with a proper preview. Listen.
Speaker 1: There's only three game is laugh now? We got two
Speaker 1: on Sunday and then the Big Boy. Well, Mark's all in.
Speaker 1: The got the Pro Bowl. Yeah, we got the Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl as well. Absolutely, um but yes, so if you
Speaker 1: count the Pro Bowl four, but we recognize three on
Speaker 1: this show. Don't tell Rog, don't tell any shadow. We
Speaker 1: lead figures. Let's just leave it at that. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening, and remember heat the h M s